Spain

I am writing this blog on 23 January 2023, which marks 12 months since I boarded my flight to Madrid to begin my year studying abroad. I was doing a year overseas with my home university, the University of Texas at Austin. I remember my energy and eagerness. It feels surreal thinking back to how 2022 started when now feels like the typical start to another year.  

I remember my first holiday season away from home. I was 22 and had just moved to Peru as part of a two-year volunteer programme. Though I was staying with a host family and had a beautiful experience of celebrating traditional Peruvian customs with them, part of me still missed my own family.  

If you live in the European Union (or one of a few other countries outside the EU), you may be able to take part in the Erasmus exchange programme, which is designed for university students in the EU and partner countries to study abroad. Here we look at what the Erasmus+ programme can offer, explain how to apply to it and hear directly from a student who took part in Erasmus.

I have always had a passion for experiencing and learning about new cultures. This is probably the reason why at school I enjoyed studying European languages, such as French and Spanish.

It was also likely the driving force behind my decision to study law at the University of Nottingham. I chose to study law with European law because I knew this would give me the option of studying a year abroad through the Erasmus programme.

I first thought about studying abroad during the second year of my bachelor’s degree.

I was studying international relations and modern languages, specialising in Spanish and Chinese. Since my Spanish was getting pretty good and I wanted to pursue my studies at the postgraduate level, I started researching for master’s degrees in political science or international relations that would take me to Spain or Mexico.